What is Existential Therapy?

Existential Therapy is more of a philosophical approach to doing therapy than it is a set of techniques. It assumes that people are free and therefore responsible for their choices. Its focus is on pursuing authentically chosen values to live out a life of purpose.

Freedom and Responsibility: One philosophical perspective is that humans are free to choose and to therefore shape their lives and their views of reality. This is opposed to a Freudian deterministic view which views all aspects of a human as being determined by a combination of genetics and early life experiences (only a small part is from later life experiences). As a result, the existentialistic focus on freedom is dovetailed with responsibility. So even though you have had that traumatic experience as a child, and both your parents were addicts, you are still the only one who is responsible for making the best of your life—especially from now on!

Values and Meaning: Existential therapy focuses on your uniqueness, your values, your dreams, and your ambitions. The main goal is to explore options for using your own unique values to create a life of meaning. Have you ever asked yourself who’s values you are living out? Yours? Your parents? Your societies? Have you become what others wanted you to become? When you realize that your guiding principles have never actually been yours, you become free to discover your authentic self and begin to change the way you live your life. What would happen if you started to make changes in the direction and guidance of your own unique, authentic, self-chosen values and passions?

Anxiety and Self-Awareness: The avoidance of difficulties, of anxieties, of stress and of others who may threaten your comfort in society makes for an easy, familiar, and simple life. On the contrary, coming face to face with the anxieties and stresses of life may be an opportunity to expand our self-awareness and to pursue human psychological (emotional, spiritual) growth. Which will you choose? To pursue safety only is to avoid that which may help you grow and change and have an impact in this world.

An Important Note: Existential Therapy is suited for clients who are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives and may now feel like they are at a crisis point or crossroad. They may feel disenchanted with their relationships, their career, or other aspects of their environment. Existential Therapy may not be right for you if your struggles are in areas such as troubling images that enter your mind or difficulties in managing your mood. In some of these cases, a CBT approach may be more useful.

Joshua Adams, R.Psych
Authentic Psychology